Expert to examine landfill - OEPA call in firefighter to investigate at Countywide
The Times-Reporter
EAST SPARTA – As early as next week, anxious residents of northern Tuscarawas and southern Stark counties who live near the landfill should know whether an underground fire is ultimately causing the air in their neighborhoods to be infected with offensive odors.
Environmental fire expert Todd Thalhamer has been called in by the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency to investigate the heat radiating from underneath a waste cell at Countywide Recycling & Disposal Facility at East Sparta.
Thalhamer, who’s associated with the California EPA and is an El Dorado Hills firefighter who holds a degree in civil engineering, told The Times-Reporter he is eager to investigate. He said he believes there is an underground fire at Countywide.
“I can’t say that for certain,” he said. “I don’t have the temperature columns, so I have to be very cautious with what I say. To say it’s a landfill fire means different things to a community than a ROSE (rapidly oxidizing subsurface event).
“This situation is even more complex with inclusion of aluminum dross.”
Aluminum dross is a water-reactive waste material that OEPA officials believe is the cause of the landfill’s permeating odor, which plagued residents in Bolivar, Wilkshire Hills and other areas and even motorists on I-77 for much of 2006.
Thalhamer said a fire poses greater health risks to area residents and employees of the landfill who are called on to fix the problem.
Some residents have questioned whether heat could compromise the landfill’s liner and pose a threat to communities that rely on the aquifers underneath for drinking water.
Thalhamer said he has no reason to be concerned with the landfill’s liner.
The fire issue arose after Larry Davis, a Kent pilot, told the Akron Beacon Journal that infrared photos he took are evidence that a hot zone under the 30-acre tarp Countywide installed to contain its odors grew 12 times in size from August to Dec. 29.
Apparently, Davis has agreed to share his findings with the OEPA for a price.
Meanwhile, Gary Broberg of Cleveland, a firefighter and former hazardous materials instructor, said he told Tim Vandersall, Countywide’s general manager, and Kurt Princic, the OEPA Northeastern District director, that Countywide was on fire as early as November.
“I offered them a solution,” Broberg said. “And they’ve done nothing about it.”
In e-mails obtained from the OEPA, Princic told Broberg he’d have to work with Countywide to get the issue resolved.
On Nov. 1, Broberg wrote to Princic:
“I talked with Tim Vandersall last Friday. He indicated that he would have one of his engineers get in touch with me. However, no one has to date. I am confident that there is a fire at Countywide facility.
“I have seen the presence of fire with lower posted temperatures. Opening up a small cut would demonstrate that fire is present. Moreover, this is a relatively easy fire to put out because of the existing liner and leachate system. I contend that some of the dross could be on fire. ...”
Broberg said the fire could be extinguished with the use of a specific product that would stop the aluminum dross from reacting.
“The fire would have been extinguished, and the odors would have gone away,” he said.
Broberg said he’s met Thalhamer before and is confident – now that the EPA is listening – that a solution is near.
Vandersall contended Wednesday that the landfill was not on fire and that nothing had indicated the existence of an underground fire in any of the landfill’s testing.
He said the cause of the heat beneath the landfill’s cover was a chemical reaction.
“Whether chemical combustion or fire, clearly both scenarios have caused an impact on local residents,” said David Held, director of the Stark-Tuscarawas-Wayne Joint Solid Waste District.
“Under either scenario it clearly has had a negative impact on residents and businesses, and we need to resolve this issue quickly,” he said. “It’s been going on for almost a year now, and it has been horrible for residents and business owners.”
